


How I Spent My Alleged Summer Vacation

by sidana



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Stargate SG-1
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-10
Updated: 2012-07-10
Packaged: 2017-11-09 13:55:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 12,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/456218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sidana/pseuds/sidana
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dawn was supposed to spend some time working a normal college student's summer job. You can guess how well that worked out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

How I Spent My Alleged Summer Vacation

Disclaimer: not my characters, not my universe. I promise to put everyone back where I found them as soon as I'm done playing with them.

Timeline- post-Chosen for Buffy, and the summer after 'Fragile Existence' for Stargate. There's a little bit of AUness to get the timelines to match up like I'd like, but it's pretty slight.

**************************

"Hey, Faith. What can I do for you today?" Dawn said, picking up her phone as she reached across the couch in the Los Angeles townhouse the Council had bought for the Slayers and Watchers based in Southern California.

"It's more like what I'm going to do for you today, kiddo. You know how we've been talking about how since we seem to be handling all the usual death, mayhem, and destruction better these days, that it was time to get people some down time so we didn't burn people out like the old Council did?"

"Was that the discussion that happened right after the Lesser Ogre Gods incident?" Dawn said as she eyed the stack of books on the coffee table. Most of them were the usual demonology texts, but there were also a half dozen for the paper she was supposed to be writing for her American History 1890-present class at USC. She was managing to pull off full time Watcher duty and fifteen credit hours at USC for spring semester, but at times only just.

"Yeah that talk. So Robin and Giles and a couple others figured out how to make it work, and Willow came up with a schedule, and the good news is that you're all set to have two whole months off this summer. Between June 15 and August 15, you are supposed to go and relax on some far away tropical island, go sip pina coladas on the beach, screw a pool boy or three, and WCI will only be calling you for help if we need your expertise on some sort of large scale Hellmouth or Hellgate level event."

"I feel like I'm supposed to go be all macho and say I feel like I don't need a break at all, but truth is, the idea's sounding good right now. Watcher duties I can handle pretty well, and the school I can handle pretty well, but each of them end up being full time jobs. I feel like I can't really dial back on the Watcher stuff, and I've gotten too many lectures from Buffy about how important it is to get my degree and not drop out like she had to that I can't really cut back there either. Heck, my real question is whether I can switch it around so I can start my break before finals this semester."

"I wish you could. But we can't have too many of our important people out at once, and Xander needs the April 15 to June 15 spot even more than you do." Faith said.

Even though earlier time off would have been nice, Faith's words managed to cheer her up in a weird sort of way as they continued to talk. Somewhere along the line she had moved from being the annyoing kid sister to having a place where she was an important part of the Scoobie team. Tired as she was, it felt good to know that they thought what she did made her a high level part of the team even if it wasn't quite like Xander's work in Africa.

Now she only had to figure out just what it was that a normal twenty year old college student was supposed to be doing on her summer vacation.


	2. Chapter 2

"Through good time and fair, we promise we'll be true.  
Camp Skyline, we love you. We love you."

"Time for everyone to finish that last s'more and head to bed. We're heading out early tomorrow, and trust me, it's not going to be fun getting back down that mountain if you haven't gotten enough sleep," Dawn said, eyeing the group of eleven year-old boys and girls that were finishing toasting the last batch of marshmallows over the fire ring as twilight started to morph into darkness.

There were the expected grumbles, then the kids polished off the gooey-good treats and began to head back to their tents. The two night camping trip into Air Force Academy land was always a high point for the eleven year olds at Camp Skyline, and the campers seemed determined to enjoy it as much as possible. Soon they were all settled into tents and sleeping bags, leaving the counselors by the still glowing fire.

"City mouse, you still seem kind of jumpy here," Julie said as she peered at Dawn from across the fire. Julie had grown up spending every summer camping in the mountains with her family, so the nickname didn't bother Dawn so much.

"It's just that there's so much sky up there, and not enough between me and the sky," Dawn said. Better to let everyone think she was a little bit agoraphobic than to know the truth of why she felt a little bit on the edge. They'd think she was crazy if she talked about what really bugged her, the lack of safe solid walls around her when she tried to sleep.

"You want a back rub to maybe take the tension out of those shoulders?" David asked.

"Sure," Dawn said, stretching out her neck and spine and pulling her braid to the front of her as David edged around the fire. She knew David liked her, knew that he was interested in something a little more than just talk with her. And she was starting to like David as well. Just maybe it would be good to kind of follow Faith's suggestion and go with the flow of it all, to have a perfectly normal sort of summer fling. And then she'd go back to Los Angeles, and David would go back to school in Boulder, and he'd never have to know just how perfectly weird her life really was.

David slid behind her, digging his thumbs into her shoulders. It was almost like he knew exactly where the straps of her backpack had dug in the worst, and how to get it all back to normal. She found herself making small happy noises as David continued to work.

"I'd tell you two to get a room, but considering how many tents we have, and how Julie probably wouldn't let me bunk with her, you two getting a room would probably leave me sleeping outside tonight," Jon O'Neill, seventeen year-old counselor in training, and the last member of their group grumbled from the corner.

"Yeah, yeah yeah," Dawn mumbled as David's hands moved down her back. "Dad, would it help if we promised we wouldn't go any further with the public displays of affection? Or if I tried to set you and Kimmie up on a date?" Kimmie was the counselor in training for the nine year old girls.

"That's okay. She's cute enough and all, but, well I just don't like the idea of dating someone who still has a big picture of a boy band on the wall," Jon said.

"And that's a bad thing?" she said, thinking back to an old crush on Justin Timberlake that she never would have admitted to anyone because of the potential of low grade mocking by Buffy's friends.

"I'd just never really feel like I could compete with that fantasy," Jon said with a shrug.

As she started to reply, she suddenly picked up the sound of something on two legs making its way along the trail to their campsite.

"What's that?" she said as she pushed away from David and got to her feet, in the process grabbing one of the long skinny branches that had been used for toasting marshmallows. Old Sunnydale habits died hard.

"Sounds like a person, and not a critter," Julie said. She was still sitting by the fire, but Jon had grabbed a rock and was also scanning the fading light.

"Hey, there, you people. Can you help me?" A thin, dirty woman in a tank top and shorts staggered into their campsite. Her voice was surprisingly calm for how wild her eye looked.

"What's wrong? Are you okay?" Dawn asked.

"They kidnapped Stacy and me and dragged us into the woods last night. Then when it started to get light, they tied us to a tree and vanished. We managed to get the ropes off, but when they grabbed us, Stacy and I fought back, and we think she broke her leg. So I had to go for help and leave her there because she couldn't walk. Please, you've got to help us. Those guys that grabbed us, they just weren't right." The woman said as she tried to keep from crying.

"What do you mean, they weren't right?" Dawn asked. As she tried to focus on the woman, she noticed Jon carefully watching the trail to make sure there was nothing coming up behind the obviously distressed woman.

"It's like they were a bunch of circus freaks. When they grabbed us, their faces were all weird, and you know how some weirdos will go to those cosmetic dentists and get their teeth turned into fangs. They'd done that. And I cut my arm when we were trying to fight back, and this one goes and licks the blood off my arm, and says that there will still be plenty left for the ritual after that. We need to call the cops and get them to rescue Stacy."

"Unfortunately, there's no cell phone reception out here. You pretty much have to go all the way back to the trailhead, and that's a pretty tough seven mile hike," Julia said. "Just take a deep breath, and we'll get you some water while we get the kids up and ready to hike back out in the dark. It's not safe for them to stay here with crazies loose in the woods."

"It's safer for them to stay put in their tents than to have them trompsing out going 'Hey Evil Dude, here I am!' Trust me on this one," Dawn said, putting together the pieces in the only way that makes sense.

"I'm with Julia," Jon said. "We're talking eleven year old kids, no weapons, and no good defensive position."

"That's assuming that the people who kidnapped Stacy, and what was your name?"

"Amanda."

"That's assuming that the people who kidnapped Stacy and Amanda were human."

"You can't be serious," David said. Dawn looked at the other two counselors. Julia face showed that she was firmly with David on this one, but there was something in Jon's eyes that made her think he was open to other possibilities.

"There's no way that something that wasn't human could get out here. Not in this part of Colorado without being noticed," Jon said.

"People see what they want to see," Dawn said. She looked around the campfire for props. She wasn't sure how much time they had before Stacy got sacrificed to the Big Evil Whatever, and it was easier to get people to believe if you did have props. The open bag of marshmallows would do. "Okay, I'm skipping 99.9% of the mythology here, but we need to get a move on saving Stacy. First part of the lecture: magic is real."

She grabbed a double handful or marshmallows from the bag, and taking a deep breath, tossed them up in the air as she called on the magic. They arched through the twilight, then stopped in midair before they could hit the ground. Deciding to get fancy, she mentally gave the command for the bits of mallow to form into a series of cube, pyramid, and sphere before letting the white puffs fall to the ground about a minute later.

"That was real?" Julie said.

"Much more real that what that David Hasselhoff or David Blaine or David whoever does on television."

"And here I never took those goth girls who claimed to know spells seriously," David the camp counselor said.

Amanda was quiet and looked like she was sliding into shock. Whoever stayed behind needed to keep an eye on her, Dawn thought. Jon didn't say a word, but instead had pulled the set of dog tags he wore out from beneath his shirt and was running his fingertips over the engraving. Jon had claimed they came from a family member who had died during the first Gulf War, and that they were a reminder to keep to his goal of getting into the Air Force Academy.

"Most of the goth girls are, as a dear friend would say, a bunch of blessed wannabes. But every so often there's real talent among the bitchy Andrea Dworkin girl power speeches and totally useless crystals. Are we okay on the belief in magic?" She glanced around and got nods from the people surrounding the fire ring. "Lets move on to point number two: vampires are real. Amanda and Stacy were abducted by vampires. Amanda's description is dead on, if you excuse the pun. "

"What, like Dracula and Lestat and all that shit?" Julie said.

"Even more whiney and evil overlord-like and shit in person," Dawn said.

"I'm starting to believe magic might be real, but vampires as well," David said.

"Trust me, they're way to real. Unfortunately, Spike's not around right now or I'd have him come to Skyline of family visit day."

"Assuming they're real, which I'm not a hundred percent sure about yet, how does that affect our ability to keep the kids safe and rescue Stacy?" Jon asked. Nice that someone was willing to keep their mind on the problem, rather than getting all spacey about the supernatural. And she shouldn't be surprised it was Jon. She'd been watching him as they went up the mountain, and he had something about him that the typical seventeen year old just didn't. He was going to be the one who went with her to deal with the problem.

"It actually makes it pretty easy to keep the kids safe. Be right back," Dawn said, rising from the fire. She went into the small tent she shared with Julie, grabbing her pack and dragging it back to the circle. She unzipped the top of it and began to dig for a certain small bag. "There, found it!"

"Found what?" Jon said, peering at what she held.

"My stash of crosses. The part of the legend about vampires not being able to enter a home uninvited is totally true. And for practical magical purposes, the tents here are houses. Put a cross on the top of the tent, and it's enough to keep the vampires from being able to mess with the tent in another way. Don't worry. We field tested it when I took what was supposed to be a nice quiet, vampire-free summer job in the woods. I should know by now it never works out that way. Okay, Amanda, how many vampires are we talking?"

"Four of them."

"Four's a manageable number. If it was like twenty of them, we'd risk the time delay so I could run down the hill to call for help. Julie and David, you two stay put with the kids and Amanda while Jon and I rescue Stacy."

"Why are you taking him? He's a kid himself," David said. Jon opened his mouth to defend himself, but Dawn started in before he could speak.

"If you had to ask, then you totally missed on the why. It's all about the way he walked up the mountain constantly scanning for danger like he was expecting the bad guys to appear on the next switchback. It wasn't like Julie, who was going up the trail like a redneck deer hunter,"

"Gee, thanks," Julie said.

"It was all about being on patrol for trouble," Dawn finished

"I was just worried about running into a mountain lion or a bear or something," Jon said. He seemed embarrassed, like he'd gotten caught smoking in the boiler room at school.

"Whatever it was to you, I know what it looked like. Now are you in for a vampire hunt?"

"No way I'd let you go after them alone. But what are we supposed to do for weapons. If it's the wood thing, are we going after them with hot dog roasting sticks?"

"Definitely not. There's way too much flex in those branches. Too bendy to penetrate the chest cavity and hit the heart, which will actually kill them, along with fire and decapitation," Dawn said as she began to pull more things out of her pack in search of weapons. She really had overpacked for the trip.

"We're just going to kill them?" Jon said.

"Yeah. Vampires may still look human, and may still have the human memories of their hosts, but when someone becomes a vampire, their soul gets kicked to the curb or sent wherever souls go, and the demon that makes a vampire a vampire takes totally over," Dawn said.

"So the human host is totally gone?" Jon said. It was kind of an odd question. But then it did take a while for some people to accept what a vampire really was.

"Totally gone," she confirmed.

"Um, Dawn, just how did you manage to fit that much clothing and gear into that backpack?" Julie said.

Dawn glanced down at the pile she had created. It was easily three times the size of the pack.

"It was a Solstice gift from a friend. There's this really cool Mary Poppins' carpetbag spell involving storage in pocket dimensions she figured out, so everyone got these purses and bags from her that have TARDIS level huge carrying capacity. Only weird thing is that if you try to store food in there, the peanuts turn purple, and the almonds turn chartreuse green," she said as she continued to rummage in the pack. "I'm not quite sure just what that dimension has against nuts, but hey, Jon do you know how to use a crossbow?"

"I can figure it out."

"In other words, probably not. Here's a half dozen nice sturdy, non-bendy stakes then," she said passing stakes not only to Jon but also David and Julie for a just in case scenario. She kept both a stash of stakes and the crossbow for herself.

"Amanda, where are they holding your friend?" Jon asked, drawing himself to his feet. The more she watched him, the more he reminded her of the odd times when Xander had channeled Army Guy. But it was way too much of a coincidence for someone else to have gotten tangled up in Ethan's spell in the same way.

"It's about a thirty minute walk farther that way. I think it's like the next camp site along the trail. There was a picnic table and a fire ring there too."

"No time like the present to deal with the vamps since there will still be a little bit of light," Dawn said, sighing as she got to her feet. "David and Julie, you know what to do to keep the kids safe?"

"Don't worry. We'll keep them inside the tents, and protected with the crosses," David said. He was a good guy. He just didn't have the background to go hunting with her like Jon really seemed to.

"Good luck, and God bless," Julie said.

"Then I guess we're hitting the trail?" Jon said.

"Yeah, it's time to go rescue Stacy," Dawn said.

They started to follow the dirt path that was just barely wide enough to two people to walk abreast. She was glad it wasn't single file. There probably would have been some sort of fuss about who was first and who was in back.

"I just wonder why the vampires thought it would be a good idea to plunk down and do some sort of magical ritual in the middle of a big military base," Dawn said.

"Probably because the base is so huge they can't really patrol the recreation lands too well. Sixteen thousand acres open to the public and about twenty people working in the natural resources office that are supposed to manage all that. Last year, there was a huge fuss in the Colorado Springs newspaper because it turned out someone had a huge pot plantation going on in one of the areas where they were getting ready to do a controlled burn. Weird stuff happens," Jon said.

"Yeah, weird stuff definitely happens," Dawn said, letting the conversation go quiet as they followed the trail towards the vampires. It seemed like a much longer walk than thirty minutes when the two finally crept closer to the Camp Vampire.

"So I'm assuming we've got a plan of attack?" Jon asked.

"Kill the vampires, free Amanda."

"I mean something more detailed than that. Like you take out the vampires on the perimeter first, then go after any left after that hand to hand."

"We usually improvise since plans don't seem to last long after the first punch gets thrown, but that sounds as good as any." If it made the rookie happy to have a plan, then Dawn wanted him to have his plan.

They hiked a little bit further until they could see the vampire campsite below them. Dawn was glad they were coming in from higher on the trail. People generally didn't look up when they were looking for trouble. The bad guys had already put game face on, which made it easier for her to convince Jon that they really weren't human. They had started a fire in their fire ring, and it was now dark enough that one of them had started to paint a pattern of geometric symbols around the fire while the other three sat on the picnic table and watched. She could make out the figure of a girl chained to a tree to one side. It must be Amanda's friend Stacy, who was still looking happily alive though wobbly.

"You were right," he said softly.

"I wouldn't lie. Well not about important stuff like this."

"Good to know. Now are you in range for the crossbow yet?"

"I probably need to be about fifty feet out. So I can probably only take out one of them with the bow. Takes too long for me to reload that they can probably rush us by the time I reload."

"So you take out the first one at range, and then we rush the other three."

"Yeah, and remember to get the stake through the heart. Hit a lung, and they just get pissed at you."

"Got it," Jon said. And there was just something about his confidence that made Dawn really believe that she had done right by bringing him along.

"Let's roll then."

She moved quietly into position, lifting her crossbow to aim at the painting vampire. All the time she had spent at the archery range the past three years had to be worth something. Taking a deep breath, she fired the quarrel, taking a moment to watch as it sunk into the vampire's chest, causing the demon to explode into a cloud of dust.

Then Jon was moving toward the remaining three, and she was following him down the hill. He got there first, moving to engage one vampire in a fistfight. Then she found herself in a fight with a vampire of her own, punching and blocking the punches the vampire threw at her. All thoughts of Jon left her mind as she concentrated on the odd dance of life and death. They were dumb. It was time to goad the vamp into something stupid so she could get this over with. She feinted, exposing her side so that the vampire thought it could get an easy punch in. Then he made the move she expected him to. He was quick, but she managed to block with her hand just in time, even though his strike hit her hand in such a way she knew it was still going to hurt in the morning. But the feint had made the vampire go off balance enough that his chest was totally exposed, and she drove the stake into its heart.

"Dawn, drop!" Jon yelled. Without a second thought, she dove for the ground without really seeing what else was going on. Before she could fully land, she felt a knee or foot or something connect with the side of her head. Then the fire gave a huge cackle like it had gotten unexpected fuel, and Dawn felt even more dust start to settle against her exposed skin. Jon had used her to trip the vampire into the fire.

"Dawn, are you okay there?" Dawn rolled on her back to see Jon bending over her.

"Did we get all four of them?"

"We got all four of them," Jon confirmed.

"Then I guess I'm going pretty good other than my hand and my head hurting. Whenever you win, you're doing good."

Jon offered her a hand, and she used it and her undamaged hand to pull herself to her feet.

"Thanks."

"No problem. Now we need to check on Stacy over there." They walked over to where the girl was tied to the tree and gagged to keep her from screaming.

"Don't worry. We're friends. Amanda sent us," Dawn said as Jon pulled out a Leatherman and began to cut through the ropes. Stacy winced as she shifted against the tree trunk. Dawn had almost forgotten that Amanda had said that Stacy might have a broken leg. "Hey Jon, how good are your first aid skills?" From what she had seen of Jon, she wouldn't have been surprised if he could act as some sort of battlefield surgeon as well.

"Unfortunately better than they have a right to be."

"Thank you, thank you, thankyou," the obviously shaky Stacy managed as Jon removed the gag from her mouth.

"Good because we've got to get that leg splinted, and oh crap!"

"Crap. Can't you just go behind some trees to take care of that?"

"No, crap in the sense we've got no way to get someone with a broken leg down the mountain."

"Don't worry. I've already taken care of that."

"What do you mean?" she asked, as Jon cut the last of the ropes and they helped Stacy to a more comfortable position on the picnic table.

"I used this," he said, pulling the dog tags out from under his shirt. "Experimental military technology. Dad's a military bigwig, and for a while they were worried about dependents getting kidnapped when he was stationed somewhere scary. So we all got these panic button devices. I tapped out the code for medical emergency, and they've probably already used it to locate me and get a helicopter sent toward out way. All we've got to do is wait until they arrive to pick us up."

"So it's kind of like one of those ads for the 'I've fallen and I can't get up' buttons, but on a global scale," she said, giggling a little. Anything that could distract her from just how much her head was starting to hurt.

"Kind of like that," Jon said.

"Dang, I better not let Buffy know they exist. She'd insist on surgically implanting one in my ass so she'd always be able to find me. So how come you didn't hit it before back when we were planning the attack against the vampires?"

"Because I didn't want their help. You seemed like you knew what you knew what you were doing. You know how you were talking about how I walked up the mountain like I was on a combat patrol? You do the same thing. And if you thought we could handle it between the two of us, then I wanted it to be just the two of us. Sometimes you just feel like you've got to prove you can take care of those kinds of problems all by yourself."

"Believe it or not, I know exactly what you mean. I've done the same thing a time or two myself," Dawn said. With a wince, she looked down at her hand. Her hand was starting to poof up in the wrong sort of way, and the pain in her two outside fingers was starting to distract from the pain in her head. As she began to hear the whir of helicopter blades in the distance, she found herself wondering if she could scam some of the really good drugs from the Air Force in some sort of unobtrusive way.


	3. Chapter 3

Because of Jon O'Neill's unconventional medical history, there were orders in place that he was supposed to go back to the Cheyenne Mountain infirmary if he ever had some sort of negative health event. If it turned out to have something to do with the Asgard's genetic tampering, the odds were much better that someone there could get him right again compared to any other health care facility on Earth.

So when the helicopter pilot had arrived to take Jon, Dawn, and Stacy off the side of the mountain, he had followed the orders involving one Jon O'Neill and medical emergency evacuations to the letter, never mind that Jon was the least hurt of the three of them. Heck, the scrape along his leg he'd picked up would in no way qualify for anything more than a dab of antiseptic and a band-aid from the first aid kit back at the Skyline campsite.

Now, injuries or no, he found himself back in the Stargate world watching as Dr. Lam walked over to Stacy's bed and began to talk to her about a time line for her broken fibula and cracked tibia to heal. Stacy would physically be okay before too long, and the people here could get her a referral to a civilian psychiatrist in Colorado Springs if she needed that kind of help. Part of him wondered just how well it would go with a shrink for Stacy if she started to talk about the vampires. It would probably go over as well as a talk about alien parasites and Egyptian gods to someone outside of the Stargate loop, he figured, complete with offers to spend some quality time in a nice padded and quiet room.

And speaking of talking about vampires, Jon was still trying to figure out just how he was supposed to warn Stargate Command about them. Jon had seen enough of the creatures they had killed in the picnic area to know that they weren't human. But the way they conveniently turned to dust when they died meant there was no physical evidence of their existence. And when they had waiting for the helicopter to land, Dawn had made it clear that her official story to any authorities was that the people who kidnapped Stacy and Amanda had been a bunch of apparent drug addicts that she and Jon had managed to run off. He guessed he was just going to have to spend the rest of his time at Camp Skyline trying to figure out a way of getting Dawn to go on the record about it all.

"How's Stacy doing?" Dawn asked as she was escorted back to the area where Jack waited. She now had her left hand in a splint, and the irritation visible in her face suggested that Jon probably wouldn't get many answers out of her tonight.

"Her leg will heal. As for the rest of it..."

"I can call up some friends, see if they can find someone in Colorado she can talk to so she doesn't think she'd nuts," Dawn offered.

"That would be good. And how are you doing?"

"I've been better, and I've been worse. Mostly I'm annoyed right now because I've got two broken fingers and something else in my hand really hurts, and they won't give me any of the super-duper Army grade painkillers I know they've got because of the concussion. Plus, I was stupid enough to admit it's my fourth concussion that I'm sure of, so they want me to stay overnight for observation, even though this one's only a Grade I one. Yes, I just love the idea of a night in the hospital when a total stranger's going to come in and poke me and ask me memory questions and talk about whether I need a CAT scan or not."

"Do you want me to stay with you? Familiar face and all?" Jon said, feeling a twinge of anger that someone that young had just admitted to what sounded like a pretty rough past. She was enough of a kid that she couldn't even drink legally yet. And yet the way she moved when she fought suggested she'd been killing vampires for many years.

"Yeah, that would be good," Dawn said, relaxing just enough that Jon could see past the irritation in her eyes. Maybe in part it was hearing about the previous concussions, but Jon thought he got a glance of someone who had seen and fought more than anyone should have to. Then the moment passed, and the two of them were escorted into one of the infirmary's scarce private rooms.

"Hey, they've got a television in here!" Dawn said with a happy squeal as she sat on the bed and reached for the remote.

"Yeah, I wonder if the Twins or Rockies are playing on the coast tonight?" It wasn't quite eleven yet. Maybe he could see the last couple of innings.

"Hey, I'm the sick person here. So I'm the one who should get to pick the channel." Dawn said as she leaned down to untie the laces of her hiking boots. "Aw crap. That's making me feel dizzy, and I need both hands to get the boots off. If you help me, I'll let you watch your stupid baseball."

"No problem," he said, bending down to undo the laces and pull the boot off Dawn's foot. "It's funny how it seems like you get so used to Skyline's no televisions, no computer access policy, but the minute you're back in civilization, you can't wait to watch again."

"Thanks," Dawn said, twisting her now free feet and ankles into a variety of patterns. "Not that I really get to watch prime time television enough to even really know what's on anymore. I usually ended up working swing shift instead. If this would have been the afternoon though, no way would you have pried the remote away from me. Spike got me hooked on Passions back when he used to babysit me, and the addiction's bad enough that I made Andrew send me a subscription to Soap Opera Digest to Skyline once I knew I was going to be there for the summer."

"What kind of job did you have?" And did it tie into vampires somehow?

"I ran a help desk. Still will run a help desk when I get back home."

There was more to that. There had to be. You didn't get that banged up when you were that young unless you were a hockey player, and at one time Dawn had said she had never really played team sports. But before he could probe further, there was a flash in the room.

And a red-haired woman in an emerald green bikini was suddenly standing in the room with them. From the anger in her eyes, the reason for her sudden appearance couldn't be good. Instinctively, he pivoted and stepped back close to Dawn in order to put himself between her and the intruder. The only problem was that the woman was already moving to grab Dawn. As she stepped forward, Jon managed to use one leg to sweep the woman's feet out from under her. She went down, and he rolled on top of her, pinning her shoulders to the ground.

"Who are you?" he demanded. The woman didn't say anything, but the edges of her hair started to bleed from red to black.

"She's a friend," Dawn said from her spot on the bed. "Willow, Jon's a friend too. I promise you that. Now ix-nay on the ower-pay before something blows up in a bad sort of way. We're all happy little friends here. It's just friends we haven't met yet. Jon would you please let go of my friend before she decides she needs to hurt someone?"

"You're a friend of Dawn's?" Jon said, rolling off the woman and offering her a hand so they could pull each other to their feet. As she steadied herself and checked to make sure her swimsuit was still secured, he watched in fascination as her hair went red again. With everything else that had happened, he probably shouldn't be surprised that Dawn had friends with access to teleportation technology.

"Known her since the day anyone first knew her."

"Willow what's the emergency? I know you wouldn't do something that required that much energy unless it was really bad."

"You. You're the emergency." Willow said.

"What do you mean, I'm the emergency?"

"Sophie's been getting some signs that the local Paris vampire population has something big planned for Bastille Day this year. So far nothing concrete, but a whole bunch of hints that something is up. And since you're one of the best people we have when it comes to putting the pieces together, and because she had some stuff that was coming in in Vailshaari and you could translate, she tried to call you and you weren't answering your phone."

"So now I know that you'll come charging to me rescue the very next time I just happen to be camping some place where I'm out of cell reception for a couple of days? Hello, summer camp counselor leading the urban youth of America into wilderness adventures."

Jon heard an alarm go off in the distance. There were security cameras in the infirmary, and Willow's sudden appearance there was too impressive to miss.

"If that was all it was, I never would have come like that, but when I ran a locator spell on you, you showed up as being twenty stories down inside of some sort of top secret military base. What else was I supposed to think? Besides, it's a Tuesday."

"What about it being Tuesday?" Jon asked. Up until that point, he had actually been able to follow the conversation to some degree.

"When Dawn has gotten kidnapped in the past before, forty five percent of the time, it's happened on a Tuesday," Willow said.

"Hey, no fair if you're including the kobolds in the sewers of Akron. They just needed someone to talk to. Totally not a kidnapping."

He was about to ask what a kobold was when the first pair from security charged into the infirmary room. Before he could start to say anything to get everyone calmed down, Willow threw her arm up in the air, and the went crashing up against the far wall of the room, their guns floating in the other direction until they came to a rest of Dawn's bed. A little part of Jon found himself wondering just how Willow had managed to get her hands on that kind of Ancient technology.

"Okay, so we need to clarify right now about whether you're being kidnapped, because if you are, I can't hold the guards for too long and still have enough energy left to get both you and your friend, what was your name again?"

"Jon O'Neill."

"To get both you and your friend back to Brazil with me."

"So very much not being kidnapped," Dawn said.

"Then why do you look like you've gone the first round with a Fyarl?"

"We ran into a group of sunlight-challenged fake biker guys next campground over. They were trying to do the whole human sacrifices to raise power shebang, but we staked the bad guys and saved the girls, and made the world just a little bit safer for puppies and kittens again. Jon helped me out."

"And your hand?"

"I was trying to block a punch, and he got me in the fingers instead of on the forearm,"

"Okay, I guess I overreacted a little then."

"Do you think much?" Jon couldn't help saying.

"Soldier boys there, if I let you go, do you promise to be good and not try to rush us all?"

"We'll stay over here ma'am. We were sent to make sure you weren't sent to harm the people of Earth in general, or the people in the infirmary in particular," the first one started

"But we need to stay here with you until the General arrives to make sure you don't harm O'Neill or the girl," the other concluded.

"That's fair enough, I guess. We don't need any more overreacting on the day. As for harming the people of Earth, trust me I'm not interested in that right now," Willow said. For the first time, Jon caught a hint of amusement in her eyes as she waved her hands and released the force field she had put on the guards. They slumped for a few seconds, then snapped back to an alert stance.

There was a lengthy pause in the infirmary room while the sirens all around continued to sound an alert. A few minutes later, the phone in the room rang.

"Let me get this one," Jon said.

"Go for it, military brat guy," Dawn said, unintentionally providing an explanation of why he should be the person to pick up the phone. Willow nodded her agreement.

"Jon O'Neill here," he said as he took the receiver.

"Jon, it's General O'Neill. Are you free to talk?"

"I'm definitely free to talk."

"We're all about the talking. Because without talking, there's a whole lot of assumptions that are going to happen, and you know what they says about assumptions, and if you make assumptions, so if you want to have some military mucky-muck in here, I guess it's all for the best," Willow said.

"Did you hear that?" Jon asked. He wasn't sure if he was up to repeating everything.

"Yes. Daniel and I will be right in," Jack said.

The phone line went silent. A few seconds later, the door opened. First through were a fresh set of guards, who took the place of the ones Willow had slammed into the wall. As soon as the old guards made it into the hallway, Jack and Daniel finally entered the room.

"I'm General Jack O'Neill, and this is my associate Daniel Jackson. On behalf of the people of Earth, we welcome you if you come in friendship, and offer you a warning that if you've got anything other than friendly intentions, we are more than capable of defending ourselves against extraterrestrial threat."

"Extraterrestrial threat?" Dawn said as Willow started to laugh hard enough she jiggled.

"Oh gosh you think I'm some sort of space alien? I'm really just a girl from Ipanema," she finally managed as she caught her breath.

"Then how do you explain your sudden appearance in the middle of a secure military facility? There's no technology on Earth capable of that," Daniel said.

"A girl's got to do what a girl's got to do when she thinks someone who's essentially a family member got herself kidnapped by some sort of Initiative-spawned dark side of the US Army and when I'm not sure if there's time to go through the whole proper channels with the good guys in the military to get her back before the bad guys mess with her because there's that whole government bureaucracy thing going on," Willow managed in one breath before finally having to take oxygen in again.

From what he had gotten from Jack, Jon could remember hearing vague rumors of a rogue N.I.D. project called the Initiative that had gone wrong enough to get totally swept under the rug.

"And I've lost you here, haven't I? Guess it's time to pull out the big card, especially since I left all my identification back in Rio. Can you get an outside line on this phone?"

"If I clear it with the switchboard," Jack said.

"Okay, then I want you to call this number at the Pentagon," Willow said, directing Jack to dial a series of numbers that sounded like it would get picked up in some deep basement level of the rings.

"Phone's ringing. Hello, this is General O'Neill at Cheyenne Mountain. I'm with Deep Space Telemetry, and there's someone here that wants to talk to you," Jack said to the person on the other end.

"First thing you need to do is tell them that Dawn Summers from the Ragnarok Group has told you code Whiskey-Tango-Foxtrot-Nine-One-One," Dawn said, with a small smile. "Dang, I love that secret code stuff."

Jack followed her instructions, and then the person on the other end of the line said something that made him go just a little bit pale.

"I've been informed that I am now ordered to render any and all aid you and your companion request as quickly as possible. Who are you people? For crying out loud, the last time the Armed Forces issued render any and all aid orders was for officers investigating World War II war crimes charges. Even I've got to go through channels when I want help from outside of Cheyenne Mountain," Jack said.

"I didn't know they were that rare. Riley claimed that it was easier to set it up that way than it was to have to explain after the fact why we kept having to break into German military bases for explosives. I hadn't realized that us being unable to just go buy dynamite in Berlin had some sort of huge implications," Willow said.

"But don't be worried. We only use that power for the really essential stuff. Well that, and the time we got Andrew a ride with the Blue Angels to cheer him up when he got all sulky after 'The Two Towers' didn't win an Oscar for Best Picture," The talk was what Jon had come to expect from Dawn in the past day, an odd mix of California college girl with hints of some sort of much harder life.

"And what essential requests, do you have for me and my people right now?"

"No big. We just want you to talk to Agent Riley Finn. He's better at sorting things out with the military for us than what we can do on our own."

There was more talk between Jack and the person in the Pentagon.

"He says that Agent Finn is currently on a flight that left Nellis Air Force Base fifteen minutes ago. He can either get you radio contact, or ask the pilot to redirect Agent Finn here."

"Send Riley over here. The more people in this mess the better," Dawn said, sounding grumpy again. Jon wondered if her head was still bothering her. Jack went back and forth with the Pentagon guy for a little bit longer before hanging up.

"Your Agent Finn is now on the way."

"In the mean time, is there anything else we can do for you? And I'd love to talk with you about your technology," Daniel said.

"Well, actually one more thing," Willow said, blushing a little bit. "So this afternoon Kennedy and I went to the beach, and then it was like Xander called the minute we walked back into out apartment because he wanted my opinion about whether his new girlfriend was evil or just the victim of some bad circumstances in the past."

"My vote's for misunderstood. Alecia seemed nice enough when I met her, and Xander's so due for the non-evil option," Dawn interrupted.

"And then Sophie called right after Xander did, and I figured, hey drop in here, get Dawn to safety, and then we're right home again, so I figured there's no need to change out of beachwear since I'm not going to be gone long. But now I'm here until Riley comes because I don't want to cause a fuss with any more of the Army,"

"The Air Force," Jack corrected.

"Sorry. I don't want a fuss with the Air Force any more than necessary. And since what passes for modest beach attire in Rio is kind of skank-ho by American military standards, I was wondering if I could, um, borrow some pants and a tee shirt from you folks," Willow finished.

"I think we could do that for you easily enough," Daniel said.


	4. Chapter 4

"D, C, B, and A. Happy with that?" Dawn grumbled to the nurse who was running her through the typical post-head injury questions. Jon had to admit he was impressed. In addition to the alphabet question, the nurse also asked Dawn questions about what she remembered in the moments before the concussion, and Dawn gave the same fabrications mixed with truth answers every time.

In the interests of more space, the group had moved out of Dawn's infirmary room and into an empty conference room in level 23. Jon approved of that. Just because Dawn had ties to some sort of weird secret organization that had friends at the Pentagon didn't mean they had to give them information on the Stargate unasked. So now they sat and stood around a room slightly larger than the official briefing room containing the expected oversized table and reasonably comfortable chairs. Willow, who had given no indication if that was her first or last name, had placed herself carefully in between Dawn and Jack at the table, seeming to position herself so that she could grab ahold of Jon and Dawn and teleport them out of the room before anyone else could react. In the mean time, she politely deflected questions from Daniel and Jack, all the while looking just a little bit odd for the mix of BDUs, flip-flops with silk flowers along the straps, and hair dyed a red color only a civilian could get away with.

As Dawn answered one more question for the nurse, Jon picked up on the sound of boots in the corridor outside the room. After some brief muffled discussion, the door to the conference room opened, and a brown-haired man dressed in a black tee and khaki pants walked inside. He paused a moment as he scanned around before his eyes finally locked onto Jack.

"Colonel Riley Finn, Joint Task Force on Archaeological Preservation, at your service, General O'Neill," Finn said, delivering a neat salute toward Jack. Jon mentally filed Finn into the box labeled 'Special Operations'. There were very certain types of people who moved like Finn did while dressing in clothes you'd find at any Gap in America.

"Colonel, welcome to Cheyenne Mountain. I understand you're here to help clear up some misunderstandings that have happened," Jack said, rising from the table to greet the other soldier.

"JTF Archaeological Preservation is legit in some way or another," Daniel said to the side of Jack as he also reached to shake hands with Finn. "I've gotten boxes from them a couple of times. I'm Dr. Daniel Jackson, Air Force Archaeological Analyst for the bases in Colorado and New Mexico."

"Riley," Willow said as she got up and walked around the table. She was grinning now. The smile on her face took several years off her estimated age to the point that she didn't look that much older than Dawn. "It's been to long, you big old hunk of a everything's top secret mister soldier guy."

"Good to see you too, Willow." Riley said, his face softening as he was enveloped in Willow's fierce hug. "How's Kennedy doing?"

"Really well. I'm sure Sam's still Sam and making the rest of us all feel like we can't compete with her fabulousness and all. You know you two really need to come down to our place some time when it's not an emergency and just take some vacation time. Carnival season would be great. You know, come down, watch the parades from our balcony while drinking up a bunch of caipirinhas by the pitcher. And did I mention that, hey, major monster season that time of year, yeah lots and lots of monsters then. Kennedy will probably have to stop a major demon from eating entire blocos."

"Doesn't sound like much of a vacation to me," Jon said as he glanced at the other side of the table. At he might have expected, Jack looked concerned at Willow's words while Daniel looked like he wanted to ask a million more questions.

"We've one of those weird karma deals. I mean statistically, Mardi Gras and Carnival celebrations are about as safe from your bad guy sub-terrestrials as you can get because they're fundamentally celebrations of the powers of light and good, and you'd have to spend too much energy trying to overcome the goodness you wouldn't have much energy left over for a fight. But if we actually talk too much about how the pre-Lenten season is a metaphysical lull time for the nasties, then something really bad is going to come along and happen next time that time of year rolls around," Dawn said.

"Like how you'd never say 'What's the worst thing that could happen?" Jack said.

"Or that everything is happening as expected," Jon said.

"Exactly," Dawn said as Willow finished her greeting of Finn and slid back to her seat between Jon and Dawn.

"And I'm serious about you two and social visits. There's more reasons to come by than just because you're glowing blue and can't get the curse off on your own."

"Glowing blue?" Daniel said.

"It wasn't that important of a problem in a big picture sort of way," Finn said. "Now don't get me wrong, and I'm glad to see you, Willow. You too, Dawn." Dawn gave a friendly wave to the soldier. "But I'm not quite sure why I'm here."

"Because I thought Dawn had gotten kidnapped by one of the bad, creepy parts of the military, and I might have overreacted just a wee little bit, and then I discovered that Dawn was actually just hanging out with what is probably the non-Adam-like good guys part of the military, and they seemed to be nice enough folks even though they're hiding the existence of aliens from the rest of the world and I figured you'd be all like the right person to clear up any misunderstandings because I just don't speak military very well, and because with our luck we'll end up having to work with them some day, so I want to keep it friendly."

"Hold it there. Aliens?"

"Yeah, they thought I was one at first, and then I was picking up some major not of this Earth but still of this dimension vibes from somewhere or somebody when that nice sergeant was helping me find some pants. Let me tell you, I've learned my lesson about teleporting and making sure I was wearing clothing appropriate for what's on the other end."

"Okay, I guess I'd be a hypocrite if I didn't believe in the possibility of aliens too. You'd just think I'd have run into one of them by now."

"Maybe we have at some time, and you know how you end up seeing what you'd expect to see, and we just didn't see them," Dawn said.

"Colonel Finn?" Jack said. The question was polite enough, but it strongly suggested that there needed to be an explanation soon.

"Sorry there, sir. Ms. Rosenberg's group tends not to operate in a very linear fashion."

"And Ms. Rosenberg's group would be?" Jack said. They apparently had a last name for Willow now. Jon was sure that what was said in the room was being recorded, and that now someone was rushing to search out information on one Willow Rosenberg.

"The Ragnarok Group is a paramilitary organization that at times works closely with American Armed Forces in protecting both the United States and the planet of Earth from sub-terrestrial threat."

"Hey, who are you calling military? Makes us sound like a bunch of gun-carrying testosterone-poisoned gorillas or something," Willow grumbled. Between the talk of stealing explosives and the way Willow hadn't hesitated to take out the guards in the infirmary, Jon would have called it paramilitary too, but if they wanted to call themselves something different, then he wasn't going to be the one to say nil.

"Okay, how about the Ragnarok Group is an organization devoted to stopping sub-terrestrial threats that consults with the Pentagon and the JTF Archaeological Preservation on a case by case basis, " Riley said.

"Much better. I mean I know it's channeling my mother to say it and all, but words really do have the power to shape the way we think about things," Willow said.

"Hold it there. Sub-terrestrials? What's a sub-terrestrial? Some sort of giant bug that lives in New York subway tunnels?" Jack said.

"File it all under things that go bump in the night. Demons, vampires, people who have actually sold their souls to the devil for physical immortality and a bonus chance to take over the world. And some of our people actually did have to deal with a dimensional portal last year that was causing a giant not-of-this-Earth bug problem in New York City subway tunnels. So do you subscribe to the National Enquirer then, General? I understand they had quite the good write up of parts of that whole mess."

"National Enquirer, Weekly World News, you name it," Daniel admitted. "Because sometimes they do come up with something that we need to check out."

"Just no messing with Bat Boy. He wants to live a quiet life these days, and we take it personally if his right to privacy is not respected," Willow said in all seriousness.

"I am willing to accept that there might be creatures that go bump in the night, as you say. Have to be a bit of a hypocrite myself if I wasn't willing to accept there's more out there than just Earth," Jack said. Jon knew that it wasn't as simple as Jack suddenly believing in vampires. In coming days, there would be discreet research on many fronts to check out Willow and Finn's stories and see if there was some sort of technological explanation for her sudden appearance in the infirmary. But in the mean time, Jack had seen too much to dismiss the concept out of hand.

"And if you want proof, maybe on parents' weekend, I could take you and Jon and Dr. Jackson there away from camp and we could hit the skankier parts of Colorado Springs for a good old-fashioned demon bar crawl. Believe it or not, there's something up in Manitou Springs that draws them to the area like white on rice," Dawn said. Willow shot her a quick look. "Hey, growing up quickly here, and do you really want to go into the metaphysics of me and the legal drinking age right now?"

"Of course, that all depends on us making sure we feel like you're trustworthy," Willow added. "Sitch, Riley?"

"You know how it goes. We're on the road so much, we're out of the loop on the fifteen different factions inside the NID and who's playing by the rules at any given time, or who's honest and who's not. But there are two things I can tell you about this particular part of Cheyenne Mountain. First, the men I've gotten in my unit that have also served here have been men that I've learned I can trust with my life."

"So if you've had people come from here to your team, how didn't you know about the space aliens part?" Dawn asked.

"Because whatever happened here was five levels beyond top secret, and I wasn't going to recruit people to my team if they opened up their mouth about something like that. I don't want people who talk on my team either."

"Makes sense. Though it's not like people would believe what got said any more than they'd believe the truth about Sunnydale," Willow said. It was another clue about the Ragnarok Group. SGC had sent multiple teams to the site of the Sunnydale disaster to make sure it had not been caused by alien technology. They had reported back that while the disaster didn't seem totally natural, there was not a single bit of evidence of alien technology involvement.

"And what's the second?" Dawn may have been willing to let the conversation drift to some degree, but her curiosity always made her come back to the original point.

"That someone at the Pentagon that we're sure we can trust one hundred and ten percent has instructed us to send any Egyptian-themed artifacts directly to offices here once we were sure there was no immediate risk associated with those artifacts."

"So you're that Riley that shows up as a signature on some of the customs slips when I get packages from JTF Archaeological Preservation? I'd really like to talk to you about some of the sites where you found those artifacts," Daniel said.

"Hold it there? You just turned over some potentially dangerous objects, with no questions asked? Just hello, drop them in the mail like you'd drop off a Christmas card, no questions asked?"

"First, I was following orders, from someone I trust, and who I think has proven themselves to be trustworthy to your group as well, and they vouch for these people. If there was any chance that anyone here would misuse those artifacts, they would never be sent here."

"Gee thanks," Jack muttered.

"And then, call me only a normal human being, but you know how it's been since Sunnydale fell. Our indicators say situations are up six hundred percent since then, and we're just barely keeping up with preventing major events. If the Air Force wants to take responsibility for old Egypt, I'm cool with that. I'm at the point where if I got a message that the Marines were now in charge of little green men claiming to be Norse gods, I'd be good with letting the Semper Fi crew handle that."

"Actually, if you're talking little gray men claiming to be Norse gods, we'll take them too," Daniel said in all seriousness. Jon glanced at Jack, and in one of those moments of perfect understanding, knew he was also amusing himself by picturing Thor trying to figure out Willow Rosenberg.

"Noted, and will pass that along to my people. Are the little gray men, um?"

"Part of our research and diplomatic sphere," Daniel said.

"Understood," Riley said.

"And no more questions about little gray men than that?" Dawn said.

"Course I've got questions. But unlike you guys, I'm not in a position to demand answers. And I don't mean to rush you guys, but I've got men back on the plane, and I'm wondering if I should get word to them that I'll be back soon, or if I'll be there a while and we should find them rooms so we can head back to Santiago in the morning."

Dawn and Willow glanced at each other.

"Think we're about ready to wrap things up before too long. I mean it's not like I'm going to be bestest buds with the General there, but it seems like he's a guy I can put on my Hanukkah-slash-Winter Solstice cards list," Willow said.

"But there's so much more I'd like to talk about with you," Daniel said.

"Kennedy's going to get upset if Willow's gone too much longer without checking in, and trust me, you don't want to get Kennedy mad. She gets nasty," Dawn said. Jon was surprised to hear Willow's presumed significant other as a her. "As for me, I've still got that whole recovering from significant injury thing going on, and I'm feeling too tired to talk more. And speaking of missing things because of the headache, Riley, was there something about you flying out of Nevada?"

"Affirmative."

"Please don't tell me you were out in Death Valley."

"We might have been in the area."

"Damn it!" Dawn went from cranky to pissed. "And here I thought we cleared out the Polgara infestation for good. Do you know how many times we rechecked the area to make sure we got them all. Then I had to send the girls to Vegas for a week to recover from all that too much sunshine and heat. You so don't want to know how much Giles chewed me out when the bill from the Bellagio Spa got back to HQ."

"No Polgaras, but a whole bunch of something-elses move in there instead. You know how nature hates a vacuum."

"Guess we'll have to start doing regular sweeps out there then. Squash it all before anything gets a foothold out there," Dawn said. Jon and the military men in the room didn't flinch at the word. They were all too good at hiding their emotions for that. But her casual use of it did make him worry a bit at just what would happen if there ever were too many vampires that Dawn, Willow, and Finn couldn't keep what they were doing secret anymore.

"So, um, Riley, Santiago, Chile?" Willow said.

"That would be the correct Santiago."

"Can I, um, hitch a ride with you then. I ended up rushing out of our apartment without grabbing my passport, and it would be kind of hard to get back home without it," Willow said.

"Wasn't the only thing she rushed out of her apartment without," Dawn said. Willow shot her what was supposed to be a sharp look, but was spoiled by her cheeks going as red as her hair.

"Keep it up, and if I ever run a trace on you and find out you're in the middle of getting audited by the IRS, I'll leave you where you are," Willow said.

"No problem, Willow. And Sam and I might just have to escort you all the way back to Rio, what with your lack of proper documentation and all."

"Great! I'll have to call Kennedy on the way and tell her to get the guest room ready. It was very good to meet you General O'Neill, and Dr. Jackson. If you ever have something that turns out not to be an E.T. after all, get in touch with Riley, and he'll get you in touch with us if necessary. Jon, it was great to meet you, and I'm impressed with how well you handled the weirdness. Dawn says you're hooking up with the Air Force when you get out of high school, but if you're interested in some other career, get in touch with Dawn, and we'd be glad to have you on board. I can tell you we've got a more relaxed dress code, you get to sleep in late, and you would not believe the dental plan our human resources, um, person found for us."

Riley reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. He looked down for a moment, then fished out a business card that had nothing on it other than a phone number in northern Virginia. Jon guessed it went back to the Pentagon somehow.

"General, if you've got any further questions about what you've heard here today, or want some proof of our activities, and no, Dawn you are not going to take the General to a demon bar, please call this number, and they'll forward any messages to me. They'll claim to be a Chinese restaurant and laundry service, but be persistent, and a message will go through."

"They're also a real Chinese restaurant. Pretty good cover, and their food's not too bad as long as you stay away from the General Tso's. You so don't want to know what really goes into their special sauce. I'm not a squeamish girl, but I wish I didn't know," Willow added.

"Also give him a call if you've got any more vampires showing up on Academy ground. I didn't mind working on my alleged vacation and all, but my group does try not to encroach on Riley's peoples' work too much unless we're in the middle of apocalypse season. Plus, easier to explain his people being on military land than little old us," Dawn said.

"Apocalypse season? You've got a season for that? Does it tie back into any of the ancient calendars? I'm trying to remember if there was some sort of Inca connection there," Daniel said.

"We've never really sat down and cross checked it all, but we do know we get demon activity spikes from May first to June fifteenth, and again from December twenty to about January third," Willow said.

"And during apocalypse season, it ends up being strictly first man, um, group that gets the call about the situation deals with it. We're too busy those times of the year to worry about bureaucratic turf wars," Riley said.

"Something certain other people in the Armed Forces could stand to learn," Jack grumbled.

"Well it was good to meet you, General, and Dr. Jackson. It probably would be good for us to get together in the near future, since somewhere down the line, we are going to have some sort of situation where one of our groups runs into what the other group normally handles. Wouldn't be surprised if it's already happened and we missed it because we weren't looking for it. And one more thing," Finn said, pausing briefly as he glanced back toward Jon. "I'm not one to tell you how to run your side of things, but I can tell you that every time we've run into a cloning situation, it's gotten ugly somehow. Trust me, you don't want to go all the way with it."

"And trust me, Colonel. For all that we're glad that there was a good outcome in it all, it wasn't our idea, and it's not something that will be repeated," Jack said.

Dawn looked at Jack, looked back at Jon, and then whispered to him that she expected a full story from him on it later on.

"And Riley, feel free to drop in next time you're somewhere close to L.A. Don't know if we can top Rio, but we'll try."

"Will do that, Dawn."

"And Dawnie, be careful. I'll send you something to help out with the hand so the fingers heal up before Buffy hears anything about it. But no more going to places where you're out of contact."

"Think you can do something to my cell phone to deal with the dead spot problem then?"

"I'll get with Andrew since he's mister fuss with electronics guy these days, and see what we can do," Willow said.

And with that, Willow and Finn left the conference room, their first step on the way back to South America. Not that there was anything simple about the meeting or their exit. Jon knew that SGC's research department was going to be digging up any information they could find on Willow Rosenberg, the Ragnarok Group, and JTF Archaeological Preservation by the time Willow and Finn made it to the next elevator shaft. Before he left, Jon was going to have a talk with Jack and Daniel about his own experience hunting vampires, and not too long after that, SGC was probably going to take either Dawn or Finn's offer up to show them what they considered to be the supernatural world. And he didn't doubt that Dawn's group would be doing some investigation of Deep Space Telemetry on their own. He wondered if they'd dig deep enough and go in the right direction to learn about the Stargate.

Jon also let himself briefly think about Willow's work offer. He had always planned on going back into the Air Force because he knew he would be doing something valuable to help protect America and the world there. But what if there were other ways that he could do the same thing without living Jack's life the second time through? Suddenly his future on a personal level seemed like it might not be what he had always assumed it would be.


End file.
